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Aftermath: The Boston Marathon Bombings

A photography book documenting the aftermath of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings.

About the Project

In 170 pages of vivid and engaging photography, Aftermath: The Boston Marathon Bombingsdocuments the physical and emotional devastation suffered when two bombs exploded at the 2013 Boston Marathon, killing three people and injuring more than 260. It’s a story of homegrown terrorism, the upending of Bostonians’ sense of safety, and a community’s memorializing of the event and its victims. Aftermath: The Boston Marathon Bombings ultimately tells a story of the value of community and the triumph of the human spirit.

Greetings! I’m Joshua Touster, a professional freelance photographer documenting this world of ours through my camera lens. Aftermath: The Boston Marathon Bombings is a photographic journey through the makeshift memorials, the lockdown, the crime scenes, and the Red Sox victory parade. The book documents the first anniversary of the bombings, the two subsequent Boston Marathons, One Boston Day, the trial of perpetrator Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, and the construction of permanent memorials to the victims.

The book begins with my introductory essay and Boston Globe reporter David Abel’s eyewitness account of the moment when the bombs exploded. It concludes with an in-depth chronology of all relevant events.

This project was personal. I live in Watertown, Massachusetts, one of central locations in the midst of the unfolding events, andAftermath: The Boston Marathon Bombingsis my take on the aftermath of the bombings and my community’s coming to grips with them.

Documenting this piece of Boston history isn’t just about Boston. It’s much larger than that. The terror that took place is part of our new reality, one which has played out in so many cities around the world. By focusing on the local, this project is a microcosm of the global experience of terrorism.

Aftermath: The Boston Marathon Bombings is an intense and emotional photographic journey of the two-and-a-half year period following the bombings at the 2013 Boston Marathon.

We Need Your Support: Let’s Raise $55,000

You are invited to become part of this important effort by contributing to theAftermath: The Boston Marathon Bombingsproject. This is a story that should not be forgotten:

“Tragedies that fade quietly into history are bound to be repeated.”

I wish to disseminate this important photographic document to as many people as possible. Aftermath: The Boston Marathon Bombingsserves as both an historical testament to that fateful day and an impetus for thoughtful conversation about the lessons of terrorism.

What Will $55,000 Pay For?

This is an important project. Your generous donations will help place this book in thousands of public libraries; high school, middle school, college and university libraries; historical societies, and other public institutions throughout Massachusetts. And if we surpass our goal, the reach of the book’s distribution will extend to institutions beyond Massachusetts.

Your gift will also help place copies in the hands of those directly affected by the tragedy: the victims’ families, the survivors, the hospitals that cared for the injured, and the police and fire departments that played a central role in saving lives.

Perks for Contributing

As a thank you for helping achieve this worthy goal, you are entitled to some terrific perks like signed prints and copies of the book. But most importantly, you are sharing a story of great importance, so that future generations will experience for themselves this pivotal moment in our history.

Thank you so much for supporting the Aftermath: The Boston Marathon Bombings project. Your donations help to educate and to heal so that tragedies like this may not be repeated.

Spread the Word

To help make—and hopefully surpass—our goal, we need to reach as many people as possible.

Please help by forwarding this appeal to anyone and everyone you know, and ask them to share with all of their contacts as well:

• Use theIndiegogo share tools at the top upper left of this page to let everyone know about Aftermath: The Boston Marathon Bombings project.

About the Author

Joshua Touster received his first camera at the age of four, and when he was 11 he turned the bathroom in his family’s New York City apartment into his first darkroom.

Since then, he received his MFA in photography from the Rhode Island School of Design, was on tour with Michael Jackson for seven weeks, and spent numerous seasons photographing the Los Angeles Lakers, the New England Patriots and the Boston Red Sox. He has shot absolutely everywhere there is to photograph at a bevy of Boston area hospitals (especially Mass General), taught photography at many institutions including Wellesley College, Curry College, and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, photographed in more clubs, concert halls, and outdoor festivals then he could possibly remember, lectured about his work in prisons and universities, photographed thousands of weddings, bar mitzvahs, and corporate events, and shot for both profit and non-profits clients ranging from Harvard University to the Union of Concerned Scientists to IBM.

He has shown his work in numerous solo and group exhibitions both nationally and internationally. He received an artist-in-residency grant from Yaddo in Saratoga Springs, and spent an entire season photographing the minor league baseball team the Brockton Rox (“We even came within one inning of winning the championship!”) which resulted in his book A Season On The Rox. He has photographed ballet dancers, artists, athletes, and politicians, toured on and off for five years with the band Phish, documented the Occupy Movement in both Boston and on Wall Street, and spent six years knee-deep in the world of horse racing at Suffolk Downs Race Track and Saratoga Race Course.

Aftermath: The Boston Marathon Bombings is a culmination of two-and-a-half years of engaging work about a tragic event, the strength of the human spirit and the essential nature of community.

Josh is constantly photographing his family, friends, and almost everything he comes in contact with (since he almost always carries a camera with him!) He responds with empathy and great joy to the people, places, and events around him, capturing light, movement, weather, and his own unique insights into humanity and this crazy world of ours.